2013 Optimist Worlds- NZL Yachting Trust team Day 1 at Lake Garda

The New Zealand Optimist Team report in from Lake Garda, Italy, venue for the 2013 Optimist Worlds:

Day 1 of The Worlds

The first day of the regatta dawned dull and overcast with virtually no breeze - but the locals said the wind would come and it did with an Ora wind arriving around 11am and whilst it started off a little shifty by the time racing was underway it was a good 15-18 knots with a few good gusts to watch out for.

Leonard Takahashi-Fry has had a very strong start to the regatta, taking a second in race one after a superb start and strong upwind to mark one, he lies 9th overall after two races. Alastair Gifford bounced back strongly after a 20th in race one to take a 5th in race two and is sitting in 39th overall.

He is followed by Nick Egnot-Johnson in 50th, Henry Haslett in 73rd and Tom Fyfe in 118th, all three taking a better result in race 2 after learning from race 1 as to what it takes to get a good start and to cement a position on the first upwind. The racing fleet is 260 boats.

Its early days but the team and coach - Susannah Pyatt - all felt good to have Day1 tucked away and all are looking forward to tomorrow where hopefully a similar breeze will develop